1996-2015 National Geographic Society. https://www.nationalgeographic.

com/environment/global-
warming/deforestation/7 nov
M O D E R N - D AY P L A G U E

Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in

damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the
world’s land area, but swaths half the size of England are lost each year.

The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the
current rate of deforestation.

The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide

more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often, small farmers will
clear a few acres by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known
as slash and burnagriculture.

Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products,
also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also
build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further
deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl as land
is developed for dwellings.

Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of

human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing, which
may prevent the growth of young trees.

E F F E C T S O F D E F O R E S TAT I O N

Deforestation can have a negative impact on the environment. The most

dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Eighty percent of
Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the
deforestation that destroys their homes.
Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without
protection from sun-blocking tree cover, they quickly dry out. Trees also help
perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor to the atmosphere.
Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly
become barren deserts.

Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks
the sun’s rays during the day, and holds in heat at night. This disruption
leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and
animals.

Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel
global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse
gasesentering the atmosphere—and increased speed and severity of global
warming.

The most feasible solution to deforestation is to carefully manage forest

resources by eliminating clear-cutting to make sure forest environments
remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced by planting
young trees to replace older trees felled. The number of new tree plantations
is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny fraction of the Earth’s
forested land.
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-

solutions-of-deforestation.php

Deforestation: Compromises of a Growing World

With the world growing at a pace hard to match, the increasing need for
space is turning out to be an area of concern. With desperate need for land
for agricultural, industrial and most importantly urban needs to contain cities
and their growing population, a direct action that we have come to recognize
as “Deforestation” occurs. Deforestation in simple term means the felling and
clearing of forest cover or tree plantations in order to accommodate
agricultural, industrial or urban use. It involves permanent end of forest
cover to make that land available for residential, commercial or industrial
purpose.

Over the last century the forest cover around the globe has been greatly
compromised, leaving the green cover down to an all time low of about 30
per cent. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), an estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest are lost
each year.

Deforestation can also be seen as removal of forests leading to several

imbalances ecologically and environmentally. What makes deforestation
alarming is the immediate and long term effects it is bound to inflict if
continued at the current pace. Some predictions state that the rainforests of
the world will be destroyed completely if deforestation continues at its
current pace.
Read here more about 51 facts about deforestation.

Deforestation or clearance occurs due to several reasons, to get an overview

we could include the need of money, both in terms of profitability as well as
providing for one’s family in most scenarios, along with lack of or no forest
laws, need for land space for housing etc among a long list of other uses.
Mainly blamed on agricultural or pastoral use, farmers fell trees for
increasing space for cultivation and/or as fodder land for grazing and
surviving live stock. The whole concept of ‘slash and burn’ agriculture, is used
to indicate this same process where farmers employ the above chain of
actions for their purposes.

Causes of Deforestation
1. Agricultural Activities: As earlier mentioned in the overview, agricultural
activities are one of the major factors affecting deforestation. Due to
overgrowing demand for food products, huge amount of tress are fell down
to grow crops and for cattle gazing.

2. Logging: Apart from this, wood based industries like paper, match-sticks,
furniture etc also need a substantial amount of wood supply. Wood is used
as fuel both directly and indirectly, therefore trees are chopped for supplies.
Firewood and charcoal are examples of wood being used as fuel. Some of
these industries thrive on illegal wood cutting and felling of trees.

3. Urbanization: Further on order to gain access to these forests, the

construction of roads are undertaken; here again trees are chopped to
create roads. Overpopulation too directly affects forest covers, as with the
expansion of cities more land is needed to establish housing and
settlements. Therefore forest land is reclaimed.

4. Desertification of land: Some of the other factors that lead to

deforestation are also part natural and part anthropogenic like
Desertification of land. It occurs due to land abuse making it unfit for growth
of trees. Many industries in petrochemicals release their waste into rivers
which results in soil erosion and make it unfit to grow plants and trees.

5. Mining: Oil and coal mining require considerable amount of forest land.
Apart from this, roads and highways have to be built to make way for trucks
and other equipment. The waste that comes out from mining pollutes the
environment and affects the nearby species.

6. Forest Fires: Another example would be forest blazes; Hundreds of trees

are lost each year due to forest fires in various portions of the world. This
happens due to extreme warm summers and milder winters. Fires, whether
causes by man or nature results in huge loss of forest cover.

Effects of Deforestation
1. Climate Imbalance: Deforestation also affects the climate in more than
one ways. Trees release water vapor in the air, which is compromised on
with the lack of trees. Trees also provide the required shade that keeps the
soil moist. This leads to the imbalance in the atmospheric temperature
further making conditions for the ecology difficult. Flora and fauna across the
world are accustomed to their habitat. This haphazard clearance of forests
have forced several of these animals to shift from their native environment.
Due to this several species are finding it difficult to survive or adapt to new
habitats.

2. Increase in Global Warming: Trees play a major role in controlling global

warming. The trees utilize the green house gases, restoring the balance in
the atmosphere. With constant deforestation the ratio of green house gases
in the atmosphere has increased, adding to our global warming woes.

3. Soil Erosion: Also due to the shade of trees the soil remains moist. With
the clearance of tree cover, the soil is directly exposed to the sun, making it
dry.

4. Floods: When it rains, trees absorb and store large amount of water with
the help of their roots. When they are cut down, the flow of water is
disrupted and leads to floods in some areas and droughts in other.
5. Wildlife Extinction: Due to massive felling down of trees, various species
of animals are lost. They lose their habitat and forced to move to new
location. Some of them are even pushed to extinction. Our world has lost so
many species of plants and animals in last couple of decades.

Solutions to Deforestation
1. The best solution to deforestation is to curb the felling of trees, by
employing a series of rules and laws to govern it. Deforestation in the
current scenario may have reduced however it would be too early to assume.
The money-churner that forest resources can be, is tempting enough for
deforestation to continue.

2. Clear cutting of forests must be banned. This will curb total depletion of
the forest cover. It is a practical solution and is very feasible.
3. Land skinned of its tree cover for urban settlements should be urged to
plant trees in the vicinity and replace the cut trees. Also the cutting must be
replaced by planting young trees to replace the older ones that were
cut. Trees are being planted under several initiatives every year, but they still
don’t match the numbers of the ones we’ve already lost.